Long time Apple watchdog, living in Malaysia, land of corruption. This blog discussed technology, gadgets and life in Malaysia.

Friday, January 03, 2014

9 Level of Consciousness

In our practice, we believe that when you are in rhythm with the Universe, things will go smoothly for you and you will meet people who will do the right things for you. It's very much what feng shui will teach you. When things are aligned, your life will go smoothly. So, if you can just employ a feng shui master to fix up your house, why do you need to spend hours chanting and meditating?

A friend once asked - if I am a very positive person, such that I truly believe that I can do things, do I still need religion? Sometimes, you see CEO of big companies. They are very positive guys. They can do big things and make lots of money. Do they need religion?

Another friend was reading the very popular book "The Secret" which says that when you focused your mind on the positive things, on things you want, you are harnessing the environment around you to move along that path you are focusing and thus you get the stuff you wished for.

So why do people need to then spend hours chanting and meditating when you can change your life for just a RM5000 feng shui master .. or buy The Secret book for RM70 or attend a motivational course for RM1000?

First and foremost - Buddhism doesn't cost you a sen.

Secondly, those motivational courses, feng shui master etc doesn't last long. One week after a motivational course and feeling extremely motivated and positive, you tend to slacken and drop back to your old habits. You need to sustain that. How do you sustain that? Chanting and making a vow in your spiritual practice is a first step to do so.

But what if you are the CEO and you have this strong determination and you can maintain and sustain your positive attitude?

That's where the 3rd point comes in. A little bit of fundamental first. In Buddhism, we believe that human have 9 consciousness. The first 5 are what we know: sight, hearing, touching, smell and taste. What you see affect how you think. What you hear affect your mood, etc.

The 6th consciousness is the conscious mind - meaning what are you thinking, your judgement, your perception of stuff. As stated in the above paragraph, what you see affect how you think; what you hear affect your mood. So if you have a positive mindset, meaning if you control your 6th consciousness, you can control how your eye view things, you can choose what you hear and you can control your reaction to something you taste or smell. This is the part the positive CEO can do.

The 7th consciousness is called the subconscious mind. You also know what this means. It means if we have the ability to control and command our subconscious, we can do wonderful things. People who can read while blindfolded have the ability to tap into their subconscious power. In Center Point, there is a school called Schida Method. They take children from 6 months to 7 years old to teach them the power of the right brain. To tap on the creative brain; to also tap on the power of the subconscious mind. I have seen children able to see through a thick cardboard card and call out the object or the colour of the object the teacher is holding. Some people get healed - because they are able to BELIEVE so strongly that their subconscious mind can tell the body to generate cells to heal themselves. Some people claimed they can travel through space to talk to someone else. This is the power of the subconscious mind.

You all heard it. There are many experience and testimonials. People witness this with their eyes. That guy who teach you about The Secret is actually teaching you the power of subconscious mind. Buddhism already talked about this 5000 years ago..

Now, what people didn't tell you is that there are two more consciousness - 8th and 9th. 8th being the karma consciousness. Karma is something we carry from past life and into future life. Karma bound people across generations. Some people have very good financial karma but bad relationship karma. They have issues with parents, spouses or can't make good friends. Some people has a lot of friends but cannot have long lasting and meaningful relationship for example marriage. Or some have children who are born disfigured. How do you change this karma that you carry? The Secret can't help you break the chain of bad karma. The positive thinking CEO can't break his health karma - do you remember the story of this young CEO of SAP who goes to gym every day - eat healthy, no smoke, no alcohol, but then died of heart attack at the age of 42? How do you break that karma that he has that he didn't realise even though he has a positive mindset?

My 4 year old already have OCD that I said it's part of the karma she carried from me (as I have some sort of OCD myself). I bet you her child in the future will have this karma unless we break this chain NOW.

This 8th consciousness is the one that people can't change - but in Buddhism, we believe we can change and break the karma chain in this lifetime i.e. no need to wait for next life. We can change this simply because of chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

It is through chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo that you are able to tap on the 9th consciousness which is your inherent Buddhahood inside you and bring it forward. As your Buddha nature inside you start to surface, it changes all the 8 consciousness above it - it cleanses your karma, it nurtures your subconscious, it helps you change the way you think and the way you see/hear/taste life. It helps you be in rhythm with the Universe and have stuff around you work in rhythm with you. It creates that positively around you and therefore you attract all the positivity from environment towards you. You get better, your children is freed from the karma that bound you. You changed both yours and their lives and people around you.